Timing

Plot Summary

A short while after his 19th birthday, Julian received a coded letter from an old friend, Simon, who now is enjoying a twenty-year sentence in The Vault out in Colorado- after the events of Noise and Confusion. While the young man dismissed the letter at first as gibberish, he saved it. This action turned out to be a good idea as within a week, a man from a private security firm which has been contracted to the Keller family arrived to question Julian about his parents. The whole situation is very vague and more than a little ominous, but it was never revealed that his parents were missing.

The incident was quickly dismissed as an anomaly until Julian was again visited on the night of the 17th by Agent Coulson of SHIELD, who informed him that his parents and little brother were missing. Soon after an announcement was made on the journals that there will be a School Sponsored Ski Trip to Colorado over Thanksgiving Break. Julian decides to go in order to visit Simon.

After arriving in Colorado and getting settled, Julian sought out Warren Worthington III to barrow one of the family’s cars under the guise of going to visit some local friends. Arriving at the Vault alone to meet with Simon, the ex-friends have a chilly reception. Simon informed him that McPhearson has his parents and will be waiting for him in his family’s beach house in Malibu if he wants to see them alive again. Taking in the news, Julian headed back to the shalet, where he created an excuse head back home for a couple days. Jean lets him go after the young man misdirects his intentions mentally and makes her think it’s a social visit with old friends, with the stipulation that Angelica Jones accompanies him. On his way out, he encounters Doreen Green and Nico Minoru who he tells what is really happening. Both of them want to come too, but get denied based on their age and the inherent risk involved in the situation.

While Julian and Angel drive through the night, the girls try to figure out how to get out to LA without being too conspicuous. Dori realizes that while Nico has cast a teleport spell, she hasn’t used a portal spell (inspired by the game of the same name). The girls arrived at the beach house, just before Julian and Angelica get there. Meanwhile, Jean tries to find the girls, and when she’s unable to, tries to track them by their cell phones, discovering them in LA. She and Jan head there immediately in a helicopter borrowed from Warren.

Julian nearly attacked the girls upon entering the beach house and soon after they arrive McPhearson showed up, with an unfamiliar face in tow- a young teleporter named Mike Smith- asking to speak with Keller privately. Julian told the others it was alright and took him out to the deck overlooking the ocean. McPhearson explained the deal, that Julian would do a three jobs for him in exchange for his family- whom are at separate locations around the state. Julian agreed to this and is given a deadline of three days- November 29th. McPhearson departed shortly before Jean and Jan arrived in the court-yard. A brief argument broke out between Jean and Julian, which she wins when she offers to help him.

A plan was formed by Jean, Jan, Angel and Julian. The first step of which was to track down the locations of Julian's parents. Julian (and a microscopic Jan) met with Gordon to request more resources, which was declined. As the mastermind leaves unknowingly with Jan in his ear. For the sake of redundancy, Jean also tried to glean the information, but discovered that Gordon only knew the location of one of the family members- Julian’s father, who was deep inside the crime boss’ fortified mansion/bunker, however, the locations of the others were located on his personal computer, in sealed files.

Jan looked around when it becomes safe to do so and discovered the locations of the other two. Meanwhile the X-Men were contacted and three strike teams were assembled. The first rescued Julian's little brother James from a shipping container in a port on San Francisco bay. The second rescued Julian's mother from an abandoned mine shaft in eastern California. The final team hit Gordon's bunker to rescue his father. Meanwhile, Dori and Nico were sent home, chaperoned by Crystal. When they don’t arrive back in New York, the alarms are raised and after a Cerebro search turned up nothing, it’s assumed that Gordon has them.

On the 29th, all three teams coordinate their attack on the facilities with SHIELD support.

In San Francisco the team met with heavy human resistance in the form of men and women with assault rifles- all of whom were being mentally dominated. The gang members were supported by two mutants, one with the power to fly and disrupt electrical equipment -Marcus Li-, the other with the ability to dominate minds- Deena Carter. They easily overcame the obstacles by distracting the armed guards, then taking out Deena. While Marcus proved to be problematic, he was also taken down and the team secured James; taking him out of the place on a chartered fishing vessel while SHIELD covers their escape.

In East California the team met with some resistance by the Simms twins, Randal and Ramona, and a new member of the Lords of War with the ability to reshape rock- Dennis Brown- the later turning the tunnels into a maze and funneling the team toward dead ends. They overcame this with quick thinking and manage to subdue their adversaries, which collapses the mine as they knock the new guy unconscious- the team barely escaped with their lives and with Julian’s mother.

The final team attacked the main gate at McPhearson’s mansion, meeting with heavy human resistance. An enhanced electrokinetic- Vince McCoy- and an enhanced gravity manipulator- Artie Ray- both of whom are addicted to Gordon, supported the human gang members while using them as fodder. While the fight between SHIELD agents and the gang members continued outside, Julian and a small team followed Gordon into the basement where a hall of mirrors has been constructed. While the team made their way through the maze, Gordon striped them of their powers. Only Jean managed to get away without being tagged through using subterfuge on the mastermind. Finally the team made their way into the center of the maze where Gordon was holding a gun to Julian’s father’s head. While Julian kept the villain monologuing Jan snuck up and knocked the gun away before getting depowered. Gordon tried to run and on his way out tagged Julian to overload the young teek’s powers. As Gordon tried to exit the room, Angel manages to trip him, knocking him out.

Because of the overload, Julian was destroying the building around them at a molecular level- and knocking him out was no guarantee that it would stop his powers as they are active while he's unconscious. Everyone except Jean evacuated as she tried to calm Julian in his mindscape, without any success. In a last ditch effort to channel his energy he blasts a telekinetic wave skyward, destroying the mansion/bunker completely with Jean shielding the two of them until the team could dig them out of the ruins.

In the end, Julian's family was reunited and they finally accepted their son’s mutation. Julian was invited to come back out to LA and faces a difficult choice between the X-Men and the family he's been seeking for ages. However, things took a turn for the worst when Gordon comes to and claims to have no idea where Nico and Dori are, a fact which Jean confirms.